Jump to content

What I Saw Today


Recommended Posts

The first day of practice is here and it is a fantastic feeling! Falcons football is back baby!

A friend and I made the trip to Flowery Branch to check out this new Falcons team under head coach Dan Quinn. Right off the bat, I noticed that this camp runs much different than camps under the previous regime. Quinn has music blasting on the field. Not sure if this is a players luxury or trying to replicate game situations. I guess this is probably something they did in Seattle and Quinn brought this with him.

The tone is much different. The players looked loose and looked like they were giving maximum effort (for the most part). I also noticed that Bryant and Bosher did not just come out and do their thing early, then run back into air conditioned building. They were both out there the entire practice, which is another difference from Smith's practices.

On to what stood out to me at camp...

Dan Quinn worked with the defense the majority of the time. I don't recall him ever coming to the offensive side of practice until the offense and the defense went at it, the last 30 minutes or so of practice. He was also not just a stand around kind of guy and occasionally hollering at players. He was in there every play, congratulating or getting on players, depending on the outcome of the play. I am really excited to see what the defense can do under him this year.

Keep in mind that this was the first practice and players practiced sans pads. They pretty much ran through different drills, ran various routes, running plays, etc. It looked like a typical first day practice. With a good 5-6 weeks until the start of the season, lots of things will change, and players will not win or lose jobs based on today's practice. With that said, I will talk about what I personally saw.

No fights took place and the only players going down that I saw were Hester after catching a few punts. From my vantage point, it almost looked like they were filing down something on his foot. He sat on the ground about five minutes with the trainer, then put his sock and shoe back on, and went back to work. Julio sat down and got his foot/ankle re-taped after running a route. He immediately got back up and went to work with no issue.

Quarterbacks worked a great deal on moving the pocket and throwing on the run. Lots of work throwing to the running backs today.

Starters (or the ones that worked with the first team the most that I saw, and yes I know I don't have eleven on both sides)

Defense

  • Babineaux
  • Hageman
  • Biermann
  • Schofield
  • Soliai
  • Worrilow
  • Trufant
  • Alford
  • Moore
  • Allen

Offense

  • Ryan
  • Jones
  • White
  • Freeman
  • DiMarco
  • Tamme
  • Looked like second string OL in for most of practice

Standouts

  • Jacob Tamme was consistent and made a couple of great catches. Hopefully we finally have a quality Tight-end game this year.
  • Justin Hardy made a few fantastic catches as well.
  • Antone Smith looks like his is back to mid-season form. Still has a burst and can make a good cut then take off!
  • Devonta Freeman played with the starters and looks great as well.
  • Tevin Coleman looked fantastic and also has a good "second gear" once he gets in the open. (Hopefully the running game will be much improved this year)
  • Babineaux would have had a couple of sacks if he were allowed to the QB.
  • Hageman played with the starters and he looked good as well.
  • Patrick DiMarco made a few great catches, including one down the sideline (rollout from Yates). Looks like the RB position will be an integral part of the offense this year.
  • Bosher can punt the heck out of the ball!
  • Bryant was money on field goals.

Not so great

  • The offensive line during passing plays. I don't know if this is an indictment on the offensive line being bad, or the defensive line being much improved, but the defense had several sacks on Matt Ryan today (if they were allowed to hit him). I will say that it looked like the second string line was on the field the most (even with Ryan), probably due to starters still recovering from injury.
  • Ishmael got yelled at a couple of times.
  • Alford dropped a couple of balls during punt return drills.
  • Hester dropped a few passes, one in particular was down the sideline that just went right through his hands, (he was covered pretty decently though).
  • Ryan is going to have to work on accuracy when he is on the move. Missed several passes on those roll out drills.

That is all I can think of now. If I you have questions, post them here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I want you to stare at him monday, stare at that young man until you see the depths of his soul if you have to!!!!

Exactly. He is to me maybe the most intriguing this offseason. Quinn obviously saw something in him to go from guy who was a practice squader to a first team player on top of a position change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Matt Ryan looked spectacular last year throwing on the run. I made a comment after a few games that he looked like Aaron Rodgers throwing precision passes on the run and many posters agreed. No need to panic, he'll do just fine throwing on the run this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you, really enjoyed your write up of what you saw.

One thing I have noticed with the few I have read today is that people really need to understand that this is Day 1 of training camp. By no means can anyone judge a player on what was seen today in respect to how they play in September.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you, really enjoyed your write up of what you saw.

One thing I have noticed with the few I have read today is that people really need to understand that this is Day 1 of training camp. By no means can anyone judge a player on what was seen today in respect to how they play in September.

Exactly!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My 53 through day one of camp.

QB-Ryan, Renfree

WR-Jones, White, Hankerson, Hardy, Reedy, Hester(PR)

TE-Tamme, Moeaki, Toilolo

RB-Freeman, Coleman, Smith

FB-DiMarco

LT-Matthews, Huffer

LG-Chester, Person

OC-Hawley, Stone

RG-Asamoah, Person

RT-Schraeder, Polumbus

LEO-Biermann, Beasley, Starr

RDT-Hageman, Babinaux

LDT-Soliai, Jarrett, Mbu

LDE-Jackson, Clayborn

WLB-Durant, Akunne

MLB-Worrilow, Stupar

SLB-Reed, Schofield

RCB-Alford, Collins

NCB-Adams

FS-Allen, Southward

SS-Moore, Ishmael

LCB-Trufant, King, White

K-Bryant

P-Bosher

S-Harris

It will be great if Alford steals the RCB job from 2nd rd pick Collins. White will miss time at his age, so a career year from Hank would be be great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...